


A Tangle of Dreams

by lentranced



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22297825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lentranced/pseuds/lentranced
Summary: Dreams are like stars, or perhaps, glowing mushrooms.
Relationships: Hop & Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Hop/Original Pokemon Trainer(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	A Tangle of Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the wonderful @mousegoro on twitter. You are a great friend <3

Titania brings her hand up, palm facing the sky and fingers outstretched. Her tent is close by, pitched and comfortable, but there is something about laying back under the open sky that she wants tonight more than ever. She brings her hand down and presses it against the sheet she's laying on.

Hop's blanket is soft, and after all these years, she has memorized the seams, the same way that she has memorized every plane of his face and the way his eyes sparkle every time she and him battle.

It is in this same manner that she knows the cadence of his footsteps, his gait gradually imprinting onto her heart over the years.

He sits down beside her, and at first, neither of them speak a word. A gentle breeze passes through Glimwood Tangle and stirs around their camp, kissing Titania's cheeks.

She turns to her side.

Not this time. She isn't going to cry.

The emptiness in her chest expands like a balloon, right up to her throat.

She closes her eyes and turns onto her side, and that's when Hop speaks.

"Hey," he says, his voice a whisper, the word only for her ears.

Titania does not move. One of her pink braids falls over her face, hiding her expression, and she is glad for it.

"Titania!" Hop says, louder this time. He puts his hand on her shoulder and that's when the balloon bursts inside of her, and she can breath and shake and cry, just a little.

She doesn't want him to see her like this.

Furiously, Titania wipes at her eyes with her sleeve, leaving smears of eyeliner on them.

Not that she cares. The pit in her gut is too deep, too endless.

"I think you should go for a walk," she says to Hop, and it is a struggle to keep her voice from cracking. "The Tangle is beautiful..."

She trails off, and silence fills the night air between them for just a beat.

"Not right now," he says. "Not if it's without you."

Titania blinks, and her tears trail down the side of her cheek. Slowly, she turns over again and looks up at her friend.

Hop, her rival. They were growing together, weren't they? How could she let him down like this?

"How?" Titania asks. "How can you keep going, after all of this? After losing again and again?"

Hop's hand shifts, off her shoulder and onto the blanket. For a long moment, Titania simply watches him mull over her words, the stars in his eyes distracting, perhaps even outshining the ones in the sky.

"Because of you," he finally says. Before Titania can truly, fully process his words, he continues. "Because you kept going, and growing, like the only direction you'd ever learn to go in was forward."

The lump in Titania's throat softens, and she can only barely swallow now. "That can't be true," she says.

"You've always been there for me," Hop says. "It's because of your kindness and encouragement that I can keep going."

Hop pats the space on the blanket between them. Titania sniffles.

"Titania," he says, and the name circles around her like the ring of mushrooms around their camp.

"I've let down my dad," she whispers. "I've let down Opal."

She can hear Hop swallow and then exhale. His breath is slow, more measured than she can ever recall it being.

She watches him, Hop, her rival and friend, and perhaps something more that her heart cannot bear to consider right now, as he brings his hand to hers and rests his fingertips against hers so gently that she thinks she's imagining the sensation.

"You haven't let them down," he says. "You could never let them down. You're amazing, and I..."

He trails off, gaze caught on her brown eyes.

"Hop?" Titania says. The tightness in her throat has melted away, replaced by the low, consistent drumming in her chest.

"You've inspired me, and I really can't take it, seeing you like this," he says. He tries a smile for her, and Titania sniffles, sitting up, careful not to shift her hand away from his.

"You've been making your dad proud every step of the way," he says, and the smile on his face is now bigger, realer.

More contagious, but it's not quite there. Just an insistent pull on one corner of Titania's mouth.

It feels stupid to ask, but she does it anyway.

"Do you really think so?" She looks at him.

Without missing a beat, Hop nods, that grin on his face getting bigger and closer to the one Titania spends too much time thinking about.

"I know it," he says. "Because I'm proud of you, and really, Titania, who wouldn't be? You're like a dream that won't stop having dreams of their own."

It's the first part of his final sentence where Titania's thoughts snag like fabric on a branch.

"A dream?" she echoes, and Hop's syllables scatter at her words.

"Yeah, uh... you know. The way you fight!" Hop says, bunching his fists. "It's like a dream!"

Titania doesn't know if his words make her happier or sadder. What was she expecting him to say, anyways? There is, however, one thing she is sure of now.

"Hop," she says, looking down at their fingers, and then back up at him. "I couldn't have asked for a better friend."

Rival, yes.

But also, and perhaps more importantly on this starry night, circled by rings of glowing mushrooms, the cold air hitting her cheeks where tears had touched her only moments ago, _friend_.

Hop gathers himself at this. His fingers slip away from Titania's, and for a moment, there's a sinking feeling in her gut.

Then it rises and vanishes, just as Hop's hand goes up to touch one of her braids.

It was a gesture that she had only dreamt about.

"We're partners, Titania," he says with a grin. "So let's keep growing. Together."


End file.
